A Full Rich Day (TV series episode)
A Full Rich Day was the 12th episode of Season 3 of the CBS-TV series M*A*S*H, also the 60th overall series episode. Written by John D. Hess, and directed by Gene Reynolds, it first aired on December 3, 1974. Synopsis Hawkeye records a letter to his dad, detailing the exploits of a mad Turkish soldier who calls Hawkeye a "damn good Joe," the unfortunate loss of the corpse of a Luxembourg soldier (who turns out not to be dead), and of a gun-happy officer. Full episode summary Hawkeye dictates a letter to his Dad on tape recorder and describes what he calls “A full, rich day…” A busload of wounded arrive, including a raving Turk brought in as a “sandwich case” meaning he is bound between two stretchers for his own safety. Seemingly immune to sedation, he frees himself by slicing through the top stretcher with a long knife, earning major crazy points with corpsman Klinger. Radar is searching for a missing wounded lieutenant from the country of Luxembourg. Just then, the mud-splattered Lieutenant Smith pulls up in a jeep with his wounded Sergeant in the back seat. This model of intensity demands Frank tend to Sergeant Bryan and threatens him at gunpoint when he refuses. Frank runs to tell Colonel Blake in pre-op, so Smith orders Radar to follow the Major and take Bryan with him. Smith then calmly demands Hawkeye, Henry and Frank work on his comrade. Hawkeye takes Smith outside to explain how they treat patients with the worst injuries first, but Smith tells him to get back in there and fix Bryan “or else…understand?” Henry attempts to operate on the mad Turk who has an injured left shoulder and still immune to all sedation. The Turk leaps off the table and uses a syringe of sedatives as a weapon. Henry tries to calm him down, but the Turk jabs him in the hand and runs off as Henry sinks to the floor. Later, Henry is visited by Colonel Blanche, commander of Luxembourg forces in Korea, who wants to see one of his men, Lieutenant LeClerq. Radar informs the Colonels that LeClerq is dead (he never did find him) and is mortified when Blanche wants the body for appropriate military honors. Radar admits they don't know where the body is, so he runs off to find him as Blake tries to smooth over the situation by telling Blanche, “We lose them all the time.” The Turk is found in the kitchen, so Hawkeye and Radar go to subdue him armed with a Turkish/English dictionary, but the Turk is still raving and swinging a meat cleaver. Hawkeye emulates his screams and cleaver chops and discovers the Turk only wants to return to the front to kill more Chinese. Hawkeye tells the Turk they'll take him back to the front by jeep, causing him to calmly slap Hawkeye on the cheek and call him a “damn good Joe.” Hawkeye gives the Turk Radar's uniform and a drugged glass of prune juice. Radar is to drive him away until he passes out and bring him back for surgery. Meanwhile, Trapper and Frank finish operating on Bryan, all the time under the careful watch – and gun – of Lieutenant Smith. After surgery, Smith collapses from his own chest and shoulder wounds. LeClerq is not found, so Henry suggests to Blanche they have a brief ceremony in camp to honor his death. As the whole camp assembles outside, the national anthem of Luxembourg is played, and LeClerq, who has been recuperating in post-op the whole time, is filled with patriotic pride and staggers out of the tent to the ceremony outside. Just then, the Turk returns in the jeep with Radar out cold in the passenger seat. He drops Radar off, shoves Hawkeye out of the way, and speeds off to the front. Hawkeye wraps up his tape to his dad by getting parting comments from Trapper, Frank, Henry, and a snore from the still-sleeping Radar. Guests/Recurring cast *William Watson as Lieutenant Smith *Jamie Farr as Corporal Klinger *Curt Lowens as Colonel Blanche *Michael Keller as Lieutenant Henri-Batiste LeClerq *Kellye Nakahara as Nurse *Sirri Murad as Turkish Soldier with Knife Trivia *The tale of a Doctor having to operate at gunpoint did happen-but in 1944 during Operation Market Garden -see the Cornelius Ryan Book of the same name and the movie "A Bridge too Far." *Although Loretta Swit doesn't appear in this episode with Watson together, they did appear in an episode of Gunsmoke in which Swit was the girlfriend who tries to help an escaped convict played by Watson Category:Season 3 episodes